Things that keep me from my WSS project

1/700 Nisshin Sub Carrier

Some of my friends are into a game called Check Your Six. WW2 plane v plane combat. For some of their scenarios sinking a ship is part of the victory conditions. There is a series of scenarios around attacks on the IJN Nisshin – a submarine/seaplane carrier – in 1942. I’ve been wanting to build a 1/700 ship model so I volunteered to do this.

It’s been 40 years since I made a 1/700 model. I have to say, “Hats-off” to guys who build 1/700 ships. It was a lot of fun but all those small parts require an incredible amount of patience and skill. Guys who do it well impress me tremendously now.

This kit is by Fujimi. It’s a really nice kit with a couple of criticisms including one word of warning. I built this kit entirely out-of-the-box. (Well, I lost a couple of 25mm directors to the carpet monster and had to get after market versions, but I need not replace anything with PE or other after-market parts). I have two criticisms of it. The first are the “smoke stacks?” coming out of the midship superstructure. There are four or five little parts on each side that need to be glued into the superstructure. There seems to be a lot of variability about where they will end up, so I’m not entirely sure I got it right. Seems to me it would be a lot easier to cast those as one part that needs to be glued to the superstructure. But maybe casting that part would be too hard?

The forward mast is really a bit of a mess. I should have checked before I put it all together but the instructions indicate that you assemble it all then glue it to the superstructure. THIS WILL NOT WORK. There is a plate on the bottom that goes under the platform on the superstructure and then you connect the front arm of the tripod mast to it after you have slipped that through the hole. Having assembled it all, I couldn’t undo it and ended up just cutting the front arm off half way down. It’s probably fine but pretty annoying. There are these cross bars connecting the rear legs of the tripod to the front leg. They seem really overscale and I couldn’t get them to fit in correctly so they kind of bulge out. Seems like an aftermarket set could help this piece.

Other than that, I was very impressed with the kit. I really like it a lot! Everything went together really well. I really need to practice patience in getting things lined up correctly. When you look at the rest of the pics you’ll see some things that could be aligned better.

I think I’ll touch up the painting on the planes. They looked ok through my magnifier but this shows they need a little work around the edges of the wings.